Known apparatus for determining one or more optimal routes from a single source to a single destination (point-to-point) involve determining each route separately and in a pre-determined order. This leads to network resource utilisation inefficiencies. In addition, known apparatus tend to focus on a single or only several requirements, optimising the route for each requirement at a time.
In addition, known apparatus used to determine routes are specific to the network type/technology under consideration and the outcome of what is considered optimal is static.
For example, in the field of telecommunications which typically comprises many network layers, operators tend to optimise individual routes for telecommunications services in a specific order and optimise network resource utilisation at each network layer independently using techniques that are specific to the network technology layer in question. This is because it is highly complex to optimize network resource utilization globally, i.e. taking into account all layers. Such routes are determined by methods which have fixed outcomes, leading to inefficiencies, a lack of understanding of inter-layer dependencies and low levels of competitive differentiation. However, failure to consider multi layer aspects compromises network efficiency and misses the opportunity to understand the impact of failure in lower transport layers.
Embodiments of the present invention aim to provide improved apparatus, methods and computer code relating to routing engines. For example, certain embodiments of the present invention aim to provide distributed, multiprocessor, scalable and fault tolerant capabilities for determining one or more optimal routes and ensuring a flexible policy driven approach to the determination of optimal routes for, but not limited to, the next-generation of Next Generation telecommunications networks and services using a GRE (Generic Routing Engine). In addition, embodiments described below aim to provide a method for multi-layer computation with a collection of connected GREs.
Furthermore, embodiments described below aim to provide network modelling which can alter as network resources are used or as the network topology changes, owing to failure and/removal of components, and/or the provision of new of components.
Exemplary methods and apparatus described below could be used for or by routing systems, network management systems, network elements/devices, path-computation elements/systems, modelling and planning systems and other operational support systems.